Our train the trainer courses are a veritable treasure trove of training tools and techniques.
There are many complicated tools for analysing training needs. However, common sense and an idea of what we are trying to achieve are enough to work out how best to pitch the training. So, here is a valuable tool that should help you set the right tone and level for your training session. You use a simple rule of thumb to measure your training against three simple words.
The three words come from Boydell and Leary’s ‘3 ‘I’s’ of learning needs – which are:
‘Implementing, Improving, and Innovating’.
So you ask yourself before you start training:
‘Taking into account the level and expectation of my students and the needs of the organisation, which of those ‘I’s most closely fits the training need?’
Are we implementing something new?
Do we need to improve on something that is already happening?
Do we need to inspire students to be creative, develop their ideas, and innovate?
Often, you will find yourself moving through them one after another during a single training session. As you introduce an idea, practice it, then apply it in different situations.
And the more you get involved in training, the more you find this becomes a continuous cycle. First, you innovate and develop new ideas. It would be best to teach people to implement those new ideas correctly. Once implemented, you may want to improve on how they work in practice. Over time, they need to be reassessed, and you find yourself innovating again. We need to estimate where our training is in that cycle.
You can run an exhaustive analysis on what sort of course you need and at what level to pitch it. Even though most of the time, there is not the time or the resources available.
So just running the programme past these three words can quickly give you a clue as to how to present your course material and approach your students.
Let’s imagine you are running a training programme for managers on implementing a Staff Appraisal system. Based on the participants’ experience and organisational requirements, you would begin assessing your approach.
Is it:
I¹ (Implementing)
Situation: There is no effective appraisal system, so training focuses on establishing one.
Relationship: The trainer will likely take the lead in this session and provide most of the answers.
Attitude: The trainer knows best.
I² (Improving)
There is an appraisal system, but it needs an overhaul.
Relationship: The trainer will involve the students in a discussion to identify the perceived problems and determine how best to improve the situation.
Attitude: The students also have valuable input and will have a role in influencing the solution
I³ (Innovating)
Situation: There may or may not be an appraisal system, but we must develop something new and original.
Relationship: In this case, the trainer may need to step back and become more of a facilitator, allowing the students in the room the freedom to explore and be creative. The trainer may guide, steer, or offer the occasional suggestion to keep the session on track, but will essentially draw the solution out of the participants.
Attitude: Everyone’s ideas are worth sharing – however whacky!
The key to choosing the right approach depends in part on the nature of the training content and the student’s level of experience with the subject. Still, another important consideration is the style of relationship the trainer wishes to promote with the student.
Implementing implies a traditional teacher-pupil relationship: ‘Do what I say!’
It works perfectly well for simple instruction.
It is what most of us have grown up with at school.
Suppose the student is happy to accept that relationship. In that case, it can be a very efficient way to learn, but it will only be successful if the student respects the trainer’s knowledge and experience and is willing to follow instructions.
Improving implies a degree of interactivity where input from the student is valued:
‘Let me share my experience. How can we do it better?’
(After all, if the student has been busily implementing these ideas over the previous months or years, they should have some personal perspective of their progress).
The benefit of this relationship is that the student feels more actively involved in their learning, and as long as they continue to see how the training will benefit them, they will be happy to engage fully. Innovating implies everyone’s opinion is valued and equally valid:
‘Let’s work together to find out what works best for you.’
In this situation, the student is more in charge of the problem. By coming up with the ideas themselves, they will probably feel more commitment and willingness to implement them.
Sometimes you might feel that the relationship style is more critical to the success of the training than merely focusing on the level of content. This could mean that, even though the training content suggests an Implementation style, you feel the relationship in the room would work better if the student were more involved and felt their opinion was valued, as in an innovative session.
It happens regularly in my field of Public Speaking.
For example, I may have been engaged to work with a CEO who shuffles around while he speaks, mumbles, and never looks at his audience while on stage.
In terms of what I would need to do to implement some fundamentals of effective Public Speaking, this could be considered an introductory implementation session.
However, even though I know what he needs to ‘implement’ and I can make suggestions on how he could ‘improve’ on what he is doing, I realise the session might be more successful if he were allowed to discover things and come to conclusions himself.
The 3 ‘I’s are an excellent shortcut to making sure you pitch your training at the right level.
And if nothing else, they may encourage you to approach each training session anew rather than only delivering the same message the same way each time.
No one likes to feel talked down to, so using an ‘innovating’ style, even in basic training, is useful because it allows students to find the answers themselves.
Vince Stevenson - Founder College of Public Speaking 2006 Ltd.
If you have a great attitude and look forward to making a difference in your life, I hope you consider joining one of our training the trainer courses or public speaking course soon. It's always possible to improve your skillset and take your work and achievements to a higher level. Three strong reasons to support training
